The J2EE Connector architecture (JCA) defines a standard structure for connecting the J2EE platform to Enterprise Information Systems (EISs). Examples of EIS include mainframe transaction processing, database systems, and legacy applications that are not written in the Java programming language. The J2EE Connector Architecture allows you to integrate EIS with application servers and enterprise applications. The J2EE Connector Architecture defines a standard set of system-level contracts between an application server and the EIS to ensure compatibility between them. The resource adapter implements the EIS part of these system-level contracts.
The J2EE Connector Architecture also defines a standard Service Provider Interface (SPI) for integrating the transaction, security, and connection management facilities of an application server with those of a transactional resource manager. The JDBC specification provides more information about the relationship of JDBC to the SPI specified in the J2EE Connector Architecture.
The JDBC Client supports appropriate JDBC functionality through the JCA SPI by providing a resource adapter. A resource adapter is a system-level software driver used by an application server to connect to an EIS. The resource adapter communicates with the server to provide the underlying transaction, security, and connection pooling mechanisms.
The DataDirect resource adapter is provided in a resource archive (RAR) file, and is named like the JDBC driver files, for example, oajc.rar. See the Installed File list in the OpenAccess SDK readme file for the names and locations of the RAR files. See the OpenAccess SDK Installation Guide for information about creating the resource adapters. See J2EE Connector Architecture Resource Adapter for more information about using resource adapters with OpenAccess SDK.
